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It is hard to believe that my Mom passed away almost a year ago. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t reach for my phone and start dialing her number just to yak.

I remember when I was growing up, my Mom had shelves of books and one of my greatest pleasures was to take a book off the shelf and start reading. My Mom and I had our own book club and sometimes we would talk on the phone for an hour discussing a book we read. I would bring her a stack of books. She would read them and then we would talk.

So I should not have found it surprising when I recently went to visit my Dad and we agreed to pack up my Mom’s books that I found all the books I had given her and that we had discussed. Tucked in with all the rest was this book, Brave Companions by David McCullough.

If you are like me, you may know the author from other things he has written, most notably, at least to me was John Adams. This book was the basis for the HBO series John Adams. Both are great.

So of course, I read through the night. McCullough is such a good historical writer. As I read the book the characters came alive. This book is about people in history that I knew about like Harriet Beecher Stowe and some that I did not like Alexander Von Humboldt.

Sometimes when you are reading a history book or just a narrative on historical facts it can be dull and boring. Not this book, at least not for me.

Thank you Mom for leaving this book for me to read. I only wish you were here to discus it with me.